The sham marriage racket involved the men 'buying women' from Slovakia

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By PAUL KEAVENY

25th September 2016, 3:22 am

Updated: 25th September 2016, 3:22 am

FOUR Pakistani men who defrauded the UK immigration system by arranging sham marriages with poverty-stricken "mail order" Slovakian brides have been jailed for over six years.

The sham marriage racket involved the men buying gypsy women from the country to abuse their right to European Union freedom of movement laws.

Shahid Mahboob and three other men were jailed for a total of six years

Within days of arriving in England, the women - all aged between 16 and 18 - married the men, who then apply for residency here and helped the women claim benefits.

Some - including one bride who had just turned 16 - even went on to give birth to children to strengthen the father’s claim to stay "on human rights grounds", prosecutors said.

Shahid Mahboob, 32, Muhammed Farhan, 24, Hammed Khan, 26, and Nasir Khalil, 39, were jailed for a total of six years and one month after they were found guilty of committing fraud by arranging sham marriages.

Alamy

The men operated their racket in Rochdale

Shilpa Chauhan, Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West, said: “Shahid Mahboob and Nasir Khalil, who had over-stayed their permission to be in the UK and Hammed Khan who had only a temporary student visa, married their young brides in Gretna Green.

"The women who were from very poor backgrounds had been brought into the country in a mail order type scenario.

"They had been in Britain a very short time before they were married, some of them only a matter of days.

"Muhammad Farhan assisted Hammed Khan to arrange his sham marriage. Nasir Khalil also deceived a 15-year-old girl into marrying him as soon as she turned 16." Miss Chauhan added: “This was a complex investigation and prosecution involving multiple strands of evidence.

Alamy

They were found guilty of committing fraud by arranging sham marriages at Minshull Street Crown Court

"The men involved in this criminal enterprise showed utter disregard for the welfare of the women they used in order simply to secure permission to stay in the UK.

"Mahboob and Khalil went so far as to father children with their wives."

Jailing the men at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court, Judge Timothy Mort said there was an "increasing number of sham marriages in this country, particularly involving EU citizens" and said the case involved "cynically engineered pregnancies."

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The judge said Khalil insisted on marrying his bride just four days after she turned 16 in a Muslim Nikah ceremony - despite the fact she was not a Muslim - and that it was done "solely to deceive the immigration authorities".

The girl herself who was said to have "feelings" for him.

The judge added: "She was then pregnant at the age of 16 as a schoolgirl and you then headed to London." However the court heard that Khalil, Mahboob, and Farahan went on to have "genuine" relationships with the women they had sham marriages with.

The men, all from Rochdale, Grt Manchester, will have their immigration status reviewed by the Home Office on release from prison.

Khan was jailed for 2 years, Mahboob for 18 months, Khalil for 15 months and Farhan was sentenced to 16 months.

The men involved in this criminal enterprise showed utter disregard for the welfare of the women they used in order simply to secure permission to stay in the UK

Earlier, prosecutor Joanna Rodikis told the trial jury: “The women were imported from very poor parts of Slovakia (referred to as travellers or Roma families) and they and their families were rewarded, we say, for their services.

“The Pakistani males could select their ‘bride’ and do what they wanted with them once they were married.

“They could choose to stay together or separate before they had left the register office, as long as they maintained the appearance of a marriage to the immigrant authorities.

“In this case, some of the defendants went so far as to father children to their brides to ensure that they obtained their residency on human rights grounds.”

Under European law, any EU resident can live and work in a fellow EU country - meaning people from countries such as Slovakia, Germany or Poland are free to move to England.

Non-EU citizens do not have the same rights, but can apply for citizenship if they enter into a marriage, civil partnership or 'durable relationship' with an EU citizen.

However, this is void if authorities believe it to be a sham marriage arranged solely to fraudulently obtain citizenship.

The court heard how one bride, Tatiana Bodorova, was brought to the UK after her father was paid £500 by another man not on trial, and she expected to be paid a further £1,000 once her husband's visa was granted.